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There is joy to be found. There can be peace, in this life, even walking through the worst of times. It's found in Jesus, and the life-on-life community known

by Syonyk 2y ago

There is joy to be found. There can be peace, in this life, even walking through the worst of times. It's found in Jesus, and the life-on-life community known as the Church. We've invented ways to turn down the volume knob on emotions. Anti-depressants, from what I've heard, achieve this (SSRIs?). My understanding, from people who've been on them, is that it turns everything into a muted greyscale. Nothing is very bad, nothing is very good, meh. But what is the human experience except the dynamic range of emotion, rightly felt? We have a perpetual recentering, and without sorrow, without grief, there can be no true joy, because they are in the contrast. Endless joy would just become normal.

Trasmatta 2y ago
> It's found in Jesus, and the life-on-life community known as the Church. Do you realize how incredibly dismissive it is for people to talk about the pain they feel, and to have someone respond "nah, you just haven't found Jesus yet"? I was raised in a deeply religious household. I found no peace in Jesus. I'm happy that Christianity works for you, but this is not globally applicable advice. It's also an example of spiritual bypassing.
- Syonyk 2y ago
  You're free to share a more general answer, should you have one. And I'm free to share the answer I've found, even as I'm working through the challenges of life. I've no idea what "spiritual bypassing" even means.
  - Trasmatta 2y ago
    I don't think there IS a general answer. That's the entire crux of the matter.
  - kelnos 2y ago
    You've found an "answer" in fairy tales, and think that gives you the right to dismiss other people's pain. Shame on you.
ksenzee 2y ago
My brother in Christ—meant genuinely—this is not the way. Multiple posts on this thread preaching about Jesus and bringing up the unborn? Evangelism is not meant to be twisting people's grief into a sales pitch. When Jesus's friends wept, he wept with them. (Also, if an SSRI turns your world into grayscale, it's not the right drug for you. That's not how they're supposed to work. Very much the opposite, in fact.)
- Syonyk 2y ago
  I certainly don't intend it as a sales pitch. I intend it as something true. Sorry, I'm in a bit of a weird state tonight, chewing through a lot of Psalms, after having gone through Job, and the collection of prophets in the past few weeks, and life... is less stable than I'd prefer right now, with a lot of challenges. Happy to chat via email or Matrix, I'm not hard to find. As for SSRIs, I've not actually tried them, I'm just going based on what several people have told me, that they're like putting earplugs into your emotions. For the unborn, I don't see a point in ignoring reality. In 2023, the last year I've got convenient stats for, the US had ~3.5M births, and ~1M abortions. We're not "orders of magnitude" off the 1-in-2 stat from a century ago, we're... maybe a factor of 2 off. I see no point in pretending otherwise. And I do know more than a few people who have either lost young children, or lost preborn children. That's just my world. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Jesus wept with them, certainly, but also was rather clear on who He was.
  - ksenzee 2y ago
    > Jesus wept with them, certainly, but also was rather clear on who He was. I'm just saying John 11:32 is not immediately followed by John 11:40. There is a time for grief, and there is a time for evangelism. > And I do know more than a few people who have... lost preborn children. I've miscarried twice myself. A lot of women have. Sometimes it's grieving a child you never knew, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's just a late period. Miscarriage is rarely the same depth of loss as stillbirth; it's almost never the wrenching, life-changing grief of losing a six-year-old. It feels honestly a bit grotesque even to make the comparison.
  - MandieD 2y ago
throwaway7783 2y ago
I am glad it helps you, but the amount of pain inflicted in the name of religion and gods in this world makes your assertion naive, to put it politely.
MandieD 2y ago
As a fellow believer, I need you to understand that you are doing more than any hardcore, argumentative atheist to turn people away from Christ by posting like this.

by Syonyk 2y ago

Trasmatta 2y ago

> It's found in Jesus, and the life-on-life community known as the Church. Do you realize how incredibly dismissive it is for people to talk about the pain they feel, and to have someone respond "nah, you just haven't found Jesus yet"? I was raised in a deeply religious household. I found no peace in Jesus. I'm happy that Christianity works for you, but this is not globally applicable advice. It's also an example of spiritual bypassing.

Syonyk 2y ago
You're free to share a more general answer, should you have one. And I'm free to share the answer I've found, even as I'm working through the challenges of life. I've no idea what "spiritual bypassing" even means.
- Trasmatta 2y ago
  I don't think there IS a general answer. That's the entire crux of the matter.
- kelnos 2y ago
  You've found an "answer" in fairy tales, and think that gives you the right to dismiss other people's pain. Shame on you.

ksenzee 2y ago

My brother in Christ—meant genuinely—this is not the way. Multiple posts on this thread preaching about Jesus and bringing up the unborn? Evangelism is not meant to be twisting people's grief into a sales pitch. When Jesus's friends wept, he wept with them. (Also, if an SSRI turns your world into grayscale, it's not the right drug for you. That's not how they're supposed to work. Very much the opposite, in fact.)

Syonyk 2y ago
I certainly don't intend it as a sales pitch. I intend it as something true. Sorry, I'm in a bit of a weird state tonight, chewing through a lot of Psalms, after having gone through Job, and the collection of prophets in the past few weeks, and life... is less stable than I'd prefer right now, with a lot of challenges. Happy to chat via email or Matrix, I'm not hard to find. As for SSRIs, I've not actually tried them, I'm just going based on what several people have told me, that they're like putting earplugs into your emotions. For the unborn, I don't see a point in ignoring reality. In 2023, the last year I've got convenient stats for, the US had ~3.5M births, and ~1M abortions. We're not "orders of magnitude" off the 1-in-2 stat from a century ago, we're... maybe a factor of 2 off. I see no point in pretending otherwise. And I do know more than a few people who have either lost young children, or lost preborn children. That's just my world. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Jesus wept with them, certainly, but also was rather clear on who He was.
- ksenzee 2y ago
  > Jesus wept with them, certainly, but also was rather clear on who He was. I'm just saying John 11:32 is not immediately followed by John 11:40. There is a time for grief, and there is a time for evangelism. > And I do know more than a few people who have... lost preborn children. I've miscarried twice myself. A lot of women have. Sometimes it's grieving a child you never knew, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's just a late period. Miscarriage is rarely the same depth of loss as stillbirth; it's almost never the wrenching, life-changing grief of losing a six-year-old. It feels honestly a bit grotesque even to make the comparison.
- MandieD 2y ago

throwaway7783 2y ago

I am glad it helps you, but the amount of pain inflicted in the name of religion and gods in this world makes your assertion naive, to put it politely.

MandieD 2y ago

As a fellow believer, I need you to understand that you are doing more than any hardcore, argumentative atheist to turn people away from Christ by posting like this.